SAN DIEGO – Wildlife advocates are praising SeaWorld San Diego's decision to let Shamu retire, so to speak, but they have reservations about the park's announcement that killer whale shows will change at the end of next year.

SeaWorld says the orcas will still be on display at the amusement park, but they won't be doing any tricks. It's a response to criticism over treatment of orcas in captivity that crested with the release of the 2013 documentary "Blackfish," which led to a drop in park attendance.

Marine biologist Maris Sidenstecker, co-founder and program director at Save the Whales, wants the orca exhibit closed altogether.

"Honestly, I think SeaWorld should not have orcas in captivity and should phase this out completely," she says. "I think they should just be a rehab center for injured wildlife and animals."

Sidenstecker says orcas swim 100 miles a day in the wild, so it's impossible to recreate their natural habitat in captivity. She says many of the whales should be carefully reintroduced into the ocean.

Joel Manby, CEO of SeaWorld Enterprises, explained the company's plans in an investor's forum on Monday.

"We are listening to our guests. We're evolving as a company, we're always changing," he says. "In 2017, we will launch an all-new orca experience. It's going to be focused more on the natural setting, natural environment and also, the natural behaviors of the whale. And it will have a strong conservation message."

In addition, Manby says a project called "Blue Ocean," involving a massive $100 million expansion of the killer whale tanks, will not go forward in light of a recent California Coastal Commission decision to ban breeding of captive killer whales.

California Congressman Adam Schiff, D–Burbank, has said he'll introduce a bill to prohibit trade in killer whales, block their capture in the wild and outlaw the breeding of captive orca.


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Friday is Endangered Species Day and experts are reminding Rhode Islanders of the plight of the North Atlantic right whale.

Right whales' habitat is off the Eastern Seaboard, where they stay close to the coast. They are slow moving and feed near the surface, and those factors, plus their high blubber content, once made them an ideal target for whalers. They were hunted to the brink of extinction before commercial whaling was banned in 1937.

Jane Davenport, senior attorney at the Biodiversity Law Center for the nonprofit conservation group Defenders of Wildlife, said they remain critically endangered.

"Human activities are killing off right whales unintentionally, via fishing gear entanglements and ship strikes, and those have the same effect as killing right whales by harpooning," Davenport pointed out. "They are reducing the population to the point where its survival is in question."

Current estimates place the right whale population around 370, with fewer than 70 females of reproductive age.

Right whales can be hard to spot, as they travel underwater, their backs are black and they have no dorsal fin. In 2008, NOAA Fisheries established seasonal speed zones, but only for vessels over 65 feet in length.

After new research, NOAA proposed amending the rule in 2022, applying it to vessels over 35 feet. The proposal was withdrawn in January but Davenport argued the expanded regulation is practical and necessary.

"If we slow boats down only in limited times and places during the year, it's not year-round, it's not everywhere," Davenport explained. "We need to have slow speed zones, just like we have slow speed zones around schools, twice a day during school days, during the school year."

Right whales feed on tiny crustaceans. Like other whales, their waste is an important part of the ocean ecosystem, as fertilizer promoting the growth of phytoplankton, which is the base of the marine food web. It is estimated phytoplankton are responsible for around half of the oxygen in the earth's atmosphere.

Davenport added despite the challenges, it is still possible to save the whales.

"We can coexist, and if we can coexist, we can allow the right whale to recover," Davenport stressed. "It is not too late. We have not passed the point of no return."


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Today, on the 20th anniversary of Endangered Species Day, conservation advocates warn polices of President Donald Trump's administration are undermining efforts to save animals and plants important to California ecosystems.

Trump's Department of the Interior wants to redefine the word "harm" to remove protection from habitat destruction in deciding which species are at risk.

Susan Holmes, executive director of the Endangered Species Coalition, noted the public comment period for the proposed change ends Monday.

"The number one reason that endangered species become endangered is the destruction of habitat," Holmes pointed out. "The proposals coming from the Trump administration would make it impossible to protect the habitat that wildlife and endangered species depend on."

Trump appointees have also proposed huge budget cuts to agencies overseeing wildlife protection and to environmental research, saying they no longer align with administration priorities.

In California, 178 animals and 290 plants are listed as either endangered or threatened, or are candidates for listing.

Many local events are planned for Endangered Species Day, including programs at Dos Rios State Park and the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium.

Holmes emphasized it is a good time to celebrate the incredible progress the country has made to reestablish species like the gray wolf.

"In California, we've seen species that were on the brink of extinction coming back, including the California condor and the California sea otter," Holmes outlined. "It is really exciting to see people working in communities to recover some of these species."

Also on Monday, the public comment period ends for a proposal to list the monarch butterfly as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act.

It is Endangered Species Day, a reminder some plants and wildlife need protection, like Pennsylvania's eastern hellbender.

It is the state's official amphibian, a salamander which has survived for millions of years but now faces extinction due to habitat loss and pollution.

Ben Prater, Southeast program director for the nonprofit conservation group Defenders of Wildlife, said today is meant to raise awareness and remind people an incredible variety of species need public support. He pointed out scientists have raised concerns for years about declining eastern hellbender populations.

"The eastern hellbender is quite unique and charismatic," Prater explained. "It's the largest salamander in all of North America, growing to an average of two feet in length, so, it's a giant of our swift, cool, fast-flowing rivers and streams."

Prater stressed the best way to help is by supporting strong protections like the Endangered Species Act. The hellbender is proposed for listing under the act, which would bring federal and state resources to aid recovery, including protecting habitat and studying their breeding and behavior to support conservation efforts.

Prater noted hellbenders are picky. They need cold, clean streams, plenty of food, and flat rocks to nest. Their numbers have dropped, as pollution and dams have disrupted the connected waterways they rely on to breed and survive.

"The real insidious threat to hellbenders is the predominance of sediment that enters our waterways," Prater emphasized. "When you have development, bad forestry practices, bad agricultural practices, all of those things can affect the watershed and the quality of the water that hellbenders rely on."

He added historically, the eastern hellbender's range stretched along the Appalachian Mountains up and down the East Coast. Their preferred habitat includes the diverse mountain streams and rivers found from Alabama and Georgia all the way up to Pennsylvania and New York.